Sorry, We're Closed

A portion of this article appeared in our local paper this morning.  The Mega-churches are closing their doors on Sunday Dec. 25 (Christmas Day). Here are some reasons given:

1) “pastors are canceling services, anticipating low attendance on what they call a family day”.      (My comment: I would love to know what ‘low attendance’ is for a 15,000 member Mega-Church – 10,000? 5,000? 1,500? 150?).

2) “The churches closing on Christmas plan multiple services in the days leading up to the holiday, including on Christmas Eve”  (Tired and weary from all the services – they will need a day of rest).

3) “Cally Parkinson, a spokeswoman for Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., said church leaders decided that organizing services on a Christmas Sunday would not be the most effective use of staff and volunteer resources”  (Imagine the local hospital saying the same thing).


4) “"If our target and our mission is to reach the unchurched, basically the people who don't go to church, how likely is it that they'll be going to church on Christmas morning?" she said.”      (Ah, here is a likely suspect: a malfunctioning ecclesiology).

5) "We believe that you worship every day of the week, not just on a weekend, and you don't have to be in a church building to worship."  (Ah yes the “All of Life is worship” principle.  Very liberating.  True we are to glorify God in all that we do, but what was it, something like “The Lord Blessed the seventh day and sanctified it” (Gen. 2:1-3).

6)  Troy Page, a spokesman for Fellowship Church, said the congregation was hardly shirking its religious obligations. (Is that ‘hardly’ as in ‘barely’ or ‘hardly’ as in ‘forcefully’? Troy? Anyone?)  

7) Fellowship will hold 21 services in four locations in the days leading up to the holiday. Last year, more than 30,000 worshippers participated. "Doing them early allows you to reach people who may be leaving town Friday," Page said.   (And what about the folks coming to town?)

8) The closures stand in stark contrast to Roman Catholic parishes, which will see some of their largest crowds of the year on Christmas, and mainline Protestant congregations such as the Episcopal, Methodist and Lutheran churches, where Sunday services are rarely if ever canceled.  (Oh this is great; the liberals are having services while the ‘right-wing conservative evangelical’ Christians are shutting down.)

With all the hype about secular government and businesses taking Christ out of Christmas, I think Christians have something more serious to be worried about; i.e. fellow Christians who are taking the Lord out of the Lord’s Day.  There is more concern for the man-made “family day” than there is for the God ordained “Lord’s Day”.


No, this is not a rant of a small church pastor who is jealous of the big mega-churches (save that post for a rainy day); it is a true grievance of the heart that the Lord is not being honored on His Day.  You can read my Sunday Postscript for my brief defense of the honoring and observance of the Lord’s Day.  Now lest I be accused of hypocrisy – in my church we are canceling our usual Sunday School classes on Dec. 25th so that families who may have a little more activity than their usual Sunday routine can have a little extra time.  But, Sunday School is not God ordained for the Lord’s Day (though some may think this so); yet, His worship is.  We are not cancelling our worship service and we will probably have a psalm sing in the evening (which seems to becoming our annual event – “The Coming of the King”, but more on that later too).

I think part of the issue here is the emphasis that is placed on Christmas and other similar ‘Christian’ holidays.  I am not totally against celebrating Christmas or Easter.  I have a lot of fond memories (both secularized and religious) of these holidays (except for the vanilla bunny incident – but more on that in April). I don’t think it is necessarily wrong to have a particular day of remembrance for the birth of our Savior.  But I am against these days being exalted above the weekly Lord’s Day; i.e. when the holidays become ‘holy days’.  I know some will call me inconsistent and poke fun at the imaginary line I have drawn, but so be it.  We do not typically gather together for worship on Christmas Day, for God has not appointed us to do so.  Besides, God has not even given to us the exact date of Christ’s birth (a pastor’s forum to which I belong has been debating this issue with some arguing the traditional Dec. 25th and some spring and some in the fall and some that it is all of pagan origin anyway – see Gene Edward Veith’s article in the latest issue of World for a helpful perspective).  December 25th as the birthday of Jesus is mere speculation (albeit educated, but still a guess)– for God has not revealed it to us in His Word.  And I think it is because of the very abuses we are seeing now (Christmas being made a ‘holy day’ and services being cancelled on the Lord’s Day), that God did not give us the exact date, because He knew it would be too great a temptation for us and that we would make an idol out of it.

However this year, we will be gathering together for worship on Christmas Day – though not because it is Christmas Day – but because it will be the Lord’s Day.  And yes, I am planning on having a ‘themed’ message that day that should coincide nicely with the ‘season’ and our evening time of praise.  And our doors will be open to welcome the worshippers of God (or at least they will be unlocked – it’s is a little too cold in the North Country to be leaving the door open late in December).